Marble Man Found Guilty on Meth Charges

Press Release

District Attorney Ashley Hornsby Welch today announced that a Cherokee County Superior Court jury recently found a Marble man guilty of operating a methamphetamine lab.

Lars Johnson, 53, attempted to firebomb the lab to prevent detection after deputies secured the location and were awaiting the return of a search warrant.

The jury found him guilty of trafficking in 400 grams or more of methamphetamine.

Superior Court Judge Craig Croom sentenced Johnson to serve a minimum of 225 months up to a maximum of 282 months in state prison. Johnson also must pay a $250,000 mandatory fine.

When Johnson has finished his sentence in North Carolina, he will be sent to Georgia, where he will continue serving an approximately 20-year sentence in that state. Johnson was on parole in Georgia when he committed his crimes in North Carolina.

On July 13, 2022, after deputies moved in to secure the methamphetamine lab, Johnson – later identified by the Sheriff’s Office – emerged from the woods and threw a gas can with a lit wick onto the camper, catching the camper on fire.

Officers immediately began to suppress the fire and kept the camper from being totally engulfed. Once it was safe for the officers to go inside, they found a drug lab that was converting liquid methamphetamine into crystals.

The lab was dismantled by the State Bureau of Investigations, and the liquid and crystal methamphetamine were submitted to the state lab. Lab analysts verified that there were more than five kilos of methamphetamine.

Assistant district attorneys Thad Downing and Jim Moore prosecuted the case.